I hope you know we have a cast recordings thread!

Love Dr. Horrible! But I better watch some animation instead of continually derailing this thread.

Well... based on my not recalling that I made several suggestions for the SF/F checklist and later *questioned what was valid for said items* I'm going to say *you* forgot... (There's logic in there somewhere...)

Had no idea! Thanks for the heads up.

In case you haven't seen it, Neil Patrick Harris also sings in the excellent Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" (available on DVD, and fits the current Challenge).

Maybe it's because I've been sick almost since the day I got home from my vacation, but for some reason I am having trouble getting into this challenge this year. I watch a little bit a day, but not as much as I would think for a genre that is one of my favorites.

Speaking of musicals, Mamma Mia! was playing at a local theater tonight, so of course we had to go see it! Now, I have to say, the actors were VERY animated! Huh, huh...?

And Pierce Brosnan singing... What's more of a cartoon than that???

Vacationing took you out of the mood! Now smarten up!

And Amanda Seyfried totally has anime eyes in that film! A case could be made!

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been well! I hope that that changes and you get your appetite for animation back soon!

I was watching "Cats Don't Dance," a late 90s cartoon, this evening. My cat decided to watch with me and spent half the time watching it and half the time staring at me. Not sure what that means, exactly, but I think I may sleep with one eye open tonight in case he got a few ideas.

Watching "Summer Wars" right now. I believe someone recommended me it last year but I was unable to get it, if I remember right. It was at my library this year so when I saw it worked for a couple of the check marks, I requested it. I'm enjoying it though it could be a bit faster paced.

Right! And those guys on the dock dance just like the animated penguins in Mary Poppins! Could wild card it as a parody, or satire!

I decided to look at Netflix, hulu crackle and youtube to find some cartoons as well. Since I am on a laptop, I can bring it out to the living room. WHat normally keeps me from watching online is the pain of going into the computer room. While I don't have a wireless modem, I can hook my modem up to the phone jack in the living room and sit on a pillow for comfort.

So I'm engaging in another episode of how not to watch a TV series. I requested seasons 3 and 4 of The Clone Wars from the local library. Season 4 arrived intact but I only received the 4th disc of season 3. Since I only have 7 days to watch them and there's no timeline for when the other season 3 discs will arrive, I'm starting with the end of season 3 and moving on.

I have no way of knowing what continuity issues I'm going to run into but for now I'm just enjoying the ride. Chewbacca makes an appearance as does Captain Agbar. There's also a brillant and disturbing 3-part story arc which examines what happens when a Jedi goes to the dark side. I guess Anakin wasn't the Jedi's only mishap, maybe they ought to design a better screening process for younglings.

I recently discovered that another Roald Dahl book had been turned into a movie. One of my favorite books of his, The BFG. (Or Big Friendly Giant) for those not in the know. It was made in 1989 and the animation shows this, but the story follows the book quite well and I was impressed with it. This is another recommendation if anyone is struggling for things to watch!

That's roughly my take on it. With an added "they're the same characters," so it should not too much of a surprise that they do similar things the second time around.

Lack of credit is a problem, however.

Because most of them enjoy the songs greatly?

I know a three-year old who thoroughly enjoys superheroes, and despite liking them for what they are, likes Captain America infinitely more because it has a great song in the middle!

Possibly. If so my grandkids, my kids, and I are exceptions. While the 2 oldest grandkids like music I can visibly see them becoming distracted during musical numbers in films/TV programs *depending on the context*. Play a episode of The Monkees, The Partridge Family, Josie and the Pussycats, and similar and they'll stick with the music, but the music feels more "natural" in those programs. Play a Disney film and they'll do something else during musical numbers. Their mom was the same way when she was their age as was their Uncle. If you take the songs out of the film and just play them they'll listen all day long and really enjoy them - but it's then essentially background music.

I really should have said "aimed at older kids", because:
Is it the *same* song every time or a new one for each story? There's nothing like a good "theme song" even in the middle of a film and one that's *repeated* every episode is a great draw for the younger crowd.

My youngest granddaughter responds more to music in a film than the film itself. She's 2 1/2 and from what I've observed with my kids and the other grandkids that's rather natural. The 1-5 year old age group seems to respond more to music than dialog. For films aimed at that group songs being placed at regular intervals to keep their interest are almost a necessity, but once you go above that age I see more kids being distracted by rather than attracted to musical numbers in a film, especially the boys.

That general attraction by the 1-5 year old age group may be what producers are aiming for but does it then make it counter productive if that film is really for a older audience? Disney is a good example. Most (all?) of their animations have tons of musical production numbers but many have sections that can be rather scary for the under 5 year old group. There are many Disney films I'll not put on if the 2 1/2 year old is watching with us in spite of knowing she'll like the musical numbers. As an example, the 6 year old and I were watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a few days ago, the 2 1/2 year old came in, got in my lap, watched until a scary part with the evil queen came up, said "Don't like this paw", got down and left. In spite of the classic songs in that film the 6 year old (a girl - the exact audience for the film) would do other stuff when the songs came on.

Over the last week, I've gone back to Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume Two and Family Guy Volume Two: Season 3. I used to enjoy both, along with most of the [adult swim] lineup, but it's been several years since I last considered myself an active viewer.

ATHF is still good for some laughs. I adore Meatwad and I get a kick out of Master Shake's antics. The humor with Carl is hit-or-miss for me. What helps the show is its brief run time. Some episodes fell flat for me, but they weren't too tedious at only 12 minutes apiece. I think my favorite episode in this volume is "Super Model", in which Meatwad exploits Shake's vanity and encourages him to undergo an escalating series of botched cosmetic surgeries. Watched on its own, it's a mean-spirited mockery of insecurity. In the context of the series, though, it's a much deserved comeuppance.

Family Guy fared much more poorly. It was always a borderline show for me anyway, but I enjoyed enough of the pop culture content and the non sequitars that I was able to sort of ignore the offensive content. This time, though, I just kept thinking of various people I know and how the whole series should have just been called Trigger Warning. Even the things that used to make me laugh about the show seemed hollow and failed to redeem it. It was clear to me before I finished Disc 1 that when I finished slogging through it, that set was going to Half Price Books.

LJG765 and I have fallen behind on the animated Star Trek, but I hope to get back to that soon. Shatner doesn't sound quite as detached as I remember feeling the first time I went through the series a few years ago. I'm debating whether I want to try to get through She-Ra, Princess of Power Season Two with the remainder of the challenge or if I want to just hold off on it until January's TV on DVD* Challenge. I also still have the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection: 15 Winners to get to, though I'm also partly leaning toward deferring that until next year's Oscar Challenge. Still, it'd be nice to knock off 15 titles from my watchlist.

I have both volumes of Season 1 of She Ra and have been pondering whether to watch them as well.

I did Season One, Volume 1 for TV on DVD* 2011. Volume 2 got split up between Animation 2011 and Animation 2012 (I missed TV on DVD* 2012). I was going to watch Season Two during this year's TV on DVD* but decided to defer it until this challenge since it's animated.

I think I just talked myself into it.

My question is why we even need a second time when the first time was perfectly good as is.

Speaking of distracting musical numbers, on day one of this challenge I watched A Man Called Flintstone, a theatrical Flintstones movie. Although The Flintstones was not a musical on TV, they chose to include several musical numbers in this film. OUCH! They were thoroughly distracting. I never wanted to hear Fred sing!

Just watched Peter Puck: How to Play the Game: The Complete Original Series. These were shorts shown during Hockey Night in Canada games back in the mid-seventies. I remember learning a lot about the rules of hockey from Peter Puck, being about the target age group at the time. I'm so glad I found this disc in a liquidation store about a year ago. There were only 9 episodes and the whole thing ran in about 42 minutes, but I really enjoyed the nostalgia!

I saw SUMMER WARS at the New York International Children's Film Festival back in 2010 with a packed audience on the night of a blizzard. The director, Mamoru Hosoda, was there and was worried that the hundreds of young children in the audience wouldn't be able to read the subtitles. The festival director assured him, "These kids'll be fine." He did a Q&A afterwards and the kids asked him some very good questions.

Hosoda came back to the NYICFF this year for his newest film, WOLF CHILDREN, which I highly recommend although it hasn't come out in English yet in the U.S. I reviewed WOLF CHILDREN and got to interview Hosoda as well. Look for my review and interview on the Otaku USA website, which has my SUMMER WARS review from 2010 as well.

I love SUMMER WARS, but I would argue that WOLF CHILDREN is his best film yet. It's also, IMHO, better than the last three Miyazaki films and has something of a Miyazaki quality to it, although a little more realistic and down to earth.

This I agree with. There should have been something saying that they were fan fictioning it (which I kind of feel this take off to be a bit.)

I agree with the theme song line. I watched The Lone Ranger the other day and totally forgot about the traditional theme music and then, all of sudden, there is was, shining and bright and beautiful and it totally fit the action going on and they made it seem like the whole thing was awesome just because that theme music was pounding and running and making you eager to see what happened next.

Walt Disney was known for having said that kids like to be scared which is why there's always a bit of scariness in his movies. I think he's at least partially right. So many of my young cousins, nieces and nephews like to be scared. There will definitely be the few who don't, but overall, most do.

I'll have to take a look at your interview/reviews when I have some time. Perhaps you were the one who recommended it to me?

I'll keep an eye out for this title as well. It might be a while before I have access as I do need the English subs, but anything that is better than Miyazaki deserves a watch! (I love Miyazaki, btw...so keeping in mind Summer Wars, this other one should be worth the wait...)

Making my way through Batman Beyond and like its predecessor, it holds up really well. Some of the episodes are darker and more mature than episodes in Batman: TAS which is strange since our new batman is a high school student. And some episodes do focus on the teen aspect of things. And still others, like "Rats," are just bad.